October 28, 2003
A United Nations expert on war crimes will arrive in Kuwait soon to help the emirate prepare war crimes indictments against former Iraqi officials, the justice minister announced Tuesday. Ahmad Baqer told parliament that Cherif Bassiouni, who worked on the Yugoslav war crimes, will lead a UN team to assist a Kuwaiti government committee. "We will coordinate with the UN in classifying the lawsuits and files as a prelude to presenting them before the courts. We will also discuss the location of the court," said Baqer. The Kuwaiti cabinet earlier this month formed a special committee to account for war crimes committed by Iraqi officials during Baghdad's seven-month occupation of the emirate. Baqer said the committee is headed by a public prosecutor and consists of members representing several other government ministries and departments. It already has a number of "almost ready" files.
The body may also look into crimes committed against Kuwait before the 1990 Iraqi invasion. The army of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 but was driven out seven months later by a US-led coalition. Kuwait charges that Iraqi troops committed numerous war crimes during the invasion, including the killing of at least 1,000 civilians, detention of thousands of prisoners, widescale torture and confiscation and destruction of property. About 600 Kuwaiti and third party nationals remain missing since the war. The emirate has identified the remains of 45 of them in several mass graves in Iraq. Dozens of top Iraqi officials of the Baathist regime in Baghdad have either been killed or detained by US-led coalition forces. A number of them, including Saddam, are still at large
More Information on Special International Criminal Tribunals
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
